Yellowstone breaks ratings records with biggest premiere yet

The Duttons continue to rise in popularity.

On Sunday, Yellowstone returned for its fifth season with an action-packed two-hour season premiere that featured John Dutton (Kevin Costner) being sworn in as governor (and already sort of regretting his decision). Meanwhile, on the ranch, Rip (Cole Hauser) is dealing with an unfortunate wolf-hunting incident, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) is getting used to her new role as the governor's chief of staff. And where the Duttons go, tragedy is never far behind, as the premiere saw Monica (Kelsey Asbille) get into a car accident on the way to the hospital and lose the baby.

All that drama resulted in the series' biggest overnight premiere yet. In total, the Western's season 5 premiere brought in 12.1 million live-plus-same-day viewers, with the series experiencing double-digit growth across all demos.

Although the drama pulled in 8.8 million viewers during its first airing on the Paramount Network, that number grew to 10.3 million thanks to simulcast airings on CMT, TV Land, and Pop. Eventually, the series got to 12.1 million with encore telecasts. All in all, the series grew an impressive 53 percent among viewers 18-34, 25 percent among ages 18-49 and 15 percent among ages 25-54.

For reference, the season 4 finale brought in 9.3 million in live-plus-same-day viewers and climbed to more than 11 million viewers with the addition of simulcast airings.

Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.

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